The unprecedented times of 2020: How KFP is ready to support the Retail Industry

KFP Blog - June 16, 2020
I think we can safely say that none of us could have predicted the unprecedented times of 2020.
The last few months have been crazy for us all, especially for retail and hospitality businesses. It's been hard for many retail and hospitality businesses all over the world, who overnight saw their shops and restaurants, simply shut.
As of now, retail (and soon to be followed by) hospitality, can open back up again, if they are able to sufficiently provide social distancing and safety measures. KFP is here to support you should you need us.
Last week, the KFP team were all reminiscing about the success that the company has achieved over the last 12 months. We all agreed that we couldn't be prouder to work in a business that genuinely cares about its customers, as it does its employees.
Our previous financial year (2019-2020 FY), was a truly phenomenal year for KFP. We not only increased our staff numbers, but we also invested heavily in training (for employees), and successfully supported the world's leading retail and hospitality brands with a superior service, which has resulted in an astounding 98% SLA record across our entire customer base.
As well as investing heavily in all areas of the business, we were most proud of achieving a 43.9% increase in revenue from last year and sustaining healthy profit margins. This success has allowed us to continue to pay staff during the COVID-19 lockdown, including those staff on furlough, and invest in the future.
John Moss, KFP's Founder & CEO
has commented saying, "It was a real team effort to have achieved what we did over the past 12 months. Like the majority of businesses around the world, KFP has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For a 3-month period, we used the furlough support scheme and placed our engineering staff on furlough".
John went on to say,
"Even though our engineering staff were on furlough, I was committed to making sure we paid them 100% of their salary. As the majority of our customers' stores were closed, we couldn't give our engineers any work from project-based rollouts to break-fix support, therefore the department was temporarily closed. Whilst we are not a small business, I care for each and every one of our employees and feel responsible for paying their mortgages every month, and that will never change, regardless of how big we grow. What we also did was encourage our furloughed staff to go out into the community and help those in need, from picking up vital prescriptions to delivering essential food shopping, to help those that were self-isolating, KFP was happy to absorb all the costs.”
Over the last 3-months, a few of us have been working very hard behind the scenes to bring in new customers, whilst continuing to support our existing ones, when required. We have also deployed vital resources across Europe to support the retail and hospitality industry from June onwards.
Many leading retail experts have commented saying, “Highly profitable trading and successful social distancing measures will be vital over the next 12 months. These measures will be key to building customer trust and very important for the long-term survival of the retail and hospitality industry.”
John concluded by saying,
"We have some very exciting news coming soon, which includes an entrance into a new industry and an additional service provision. We also have new members of staff joining the business at board level and in key departments over the next couple of months, and they will be instrumental in supporting the businesses growth plans for 2020 and beyond. I can assure you all that the next 12 months will be even bigger and better at KFP. With all our exciting plans and the fact that failure is never an option, you won’t want to miss out on all our exciting news, so please watch out on our news feeds and media channels for all the latest information".
To all retail businesses that will be re-opening over the next couple of weeks, KFP is here to help you.
If you require an experienced IT support partner to get you prepared for opening up and on-going support, then get in touch with us today.
The KFP team are all rooting for you and hope you have a successful trading period for the rest of 2020 onwards.
Contact us:
www.kfpit.com | sales@kfpit.com | +44 (0) 1235 539101